Apparatus for lighting the landing place from aerial craft



. 1,621,421 March 15 1927. M KUNZER v APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING THE LANDINGPLACE FROM AERIAL CRAFT Filed Dec.ll, 1925 f, A iinzef' "want n PatentedMar. 15, 1927.

UNITED STATES 1,621,421 PATENT OFFICE.

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Application filed December 11, 1925, Serial No.

In many cases aerial crafts are obliged to land in the dark on a groundwholly unknown. The landing must be effected in some'mfnutes and it istherefore very important to light up the landing place from the aerialcraft in the space of a few seconds in order to let the pilot of thecraft recognize the nature of the ground above which he is moving.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for lighting in aneifect-ive manner a landing place when said apparatus is ejected from anair craft passing over the country. To this end the apparatus comprisesa folded parachute which is unfolded at a predetermined time whilel'ghting a rocket or lumi nous bomb attached to the apparatus. Pref-.erablythe center of gravity of the apparah s is very little above theluminous charge so that this latter is always at the bottom while theapparatus is falling. The parachute is attached at the top of theapparatus.

The annexed drawing represents a working example of the apparatusaccording to the present invention. a

Fig. 1 is a vertical section,

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 is a detail view.-

The apparatus comprises an outer shell 81 having a shape best adaptedfor overcoming the atmospheric resistance. This shell is divided into anumber of chambers separated by partition walls 82, 83 and '84. An opencylinder 183 placed above the wall 82 encloses a folded parachute 184which is attached to the upper edge of the shell by the ropes 85. Ahelical spring 86 arranged at the bottom of said cylinder carries apiston 87 and after having been bout is adapted to eject the parachute.

A rod 187 fast to the piston provided with a hook 88 projects downwardsfrom below said piston and forms the means for maintaining the spring ina bent state and the piston ready for ejecting the parachute. Whenspring 86 is in an unbent state piston on line IIII 87 magbe presseddown by means of a knob 90- an rod' 187 may be thrust through the a turngiven to piston opening 89 until by 87 hook 88 has clasped the wall 82.

The chamber between the walls 82 and 83 contains a clockworkwhereof'only the rincipal parts the barrel 91 and the regulator 74,833,and in Switzerland November 4, 1925.

92 are represented. -The',arbor of the barrel means of a crank 96 movingon a graduation- 97 on a plate 200 of the clockwork. Owing connectionbetween the arbor of the barrel and the shaft of the crank 96 thebending of the spring in the barrel is depending upon the position ofthe crank on the graduation to a bevel gear 98 establishing the workingwhich will'determinc also the time of ejecting the parachute which willtake place when said cranks have assumed again their zero position.After the clockwork has been set going and the stop 198 has released theplate 99 the crank 94 as well as'the crank 96 will tend to assumeagaintheir initial position of 'zero. Said stop 198 is operated by hand andmay be constructed as shown. Itserves' as a safety device againstaccidents due to careless handling while the apparatus is not in use.When .the apparatus is taken into use said stop 198 is removed afterhaving adjusted the crank 96.

The space between the walls 83 and 84 is filled with a heat-insulating,fire-proof substance 100 and is arranged above the chamber 101containing a flare body. When this charge is lighted the luminousvapours will escape through the slots 102 The lighting chargecommunicates through a canal 104 across the insulating substance with atube 103 provided with a' cartridge primer 105 which can be fired by ahammer 106. This hammer can be cooked by means of a lever 107 extendedto the outside of plate 200. A helical tension spring fast to plate 110is attached to the lever'107 which is linked to the striking arm of thehammer and pivoted within a slot of plate 200. The cocked ham- 'mer ismaintained in its position by means of lever 111. This lever is pivotedon a vertical pin fast to plate 110 and is kept by means of a curved armand under the eifect of a spring not shown in slidin contact with thecylindrical surface of the arrel 91. The other arm is shaped like'a hook108 and extends "into the path of the tail end of-hamcocked position.The cylindrical mer 106 which is pivoted on a standard 115. Said tailend of the hammer is curved in such a way that when the hammer is cockedby raising its striking arm by means of lever 107 the hook 108 snapsover said tail end of the hammer and maintains it in its surface of thebarrel is also swept by a finger 115 at the end of an arm 116 fast tothe barrels axle. When the crank 96 which is the controlling means ofthe apparatus has returned to its zero position and when the parachutehas been ejected trom the cylinder 183 then also arm 116 will havereached its initial position and finger 115 will have met with and havepassed the curved end of lever 111. This lever will be swung out therebyand hook 108 will be-withdrawn from the tail end of hammer 106 whichwill strike down on the cartridge primer and will fire the flare bodywithin chamber 101, hook 108 will release the hammer 106 which under theefiect of spring 109 strikes the cartridge primer and lights thelighting charge.

Tube 103 is mounted on a small slide 113 which can be reached through adoor 114. If this slide according to Fig. 2 is pushed to the right tube103 its cap will be withdrawn out of reach of hammer 106. In thisposition-not only canal 104 is shut but any undesired firing of the capis made impossible.

Ifthe apparatus is not in use the parachute is held down inside ofcylinder 183 by two arms 120 hinged within slots to the walls of saidcylinder. In the drawing one arm is shown in an upright and the otherarm in 9. turned down position. Instead of being arranged so as tooperate simultaneously the ejecting of the parachute and the firing ofthe charge could be arranged to operate at difierent times. Also themeans employed could be other than those shown. Thus an aerial propelleror turbine could be employed which would operate a certain time beforethe firing woul do so. Also the cartridge priming could be mountedon adisk which would be turned by the aerial propeller attached to theapparatus before its ejection and would turn so as to operate the firingafter a certain height of fall.

Also an electric battery could be provided inside of the apparatus andthe current be employed for creatin a spark for firing the lightingload. T e chamber 101 containing the lighting load could also bearranged so that it would, when fired, be separated from the apparatusand would drop first quite independently from the other parts. Thelighting charge would then be dropped and burn in the free air.

With such an apparatus it is possible to reach a determined height in avery short time, to unfold there the parachute in order to slaken thevelocity of fall and'to light the lighting charge simultaneously orsomewhat before. By such a proceeding the apparatus floats at the properdistance from the country which is to be lit up and allows thereby tohave in a few minutes a prospect of the conditions of the landing.

' What we claim is:

In an apparatus for lighting the landing place from aerial crafts thecombination of an open cylinder turned upwards and an outer shellattached to said cylinder so as to form a chamber underneath saidcylinder,'a folded parachute sheltered within said cylinder and attachedto said shell, an eecting device for the parachute constitute of aspring operated piston, a clock work contained within said hamber and aflare body suspended at the bottom of said shell, a firing devicecomprising a, cocked hammer and a cartridge fprimer at an effectivedistance from said are and a releasing mechanism consisting of crankscontrolled by said clockwork and adapted to release the spring operatedpiston and the cooked hammer of i the firing device.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature,

MARCEL KUNZER.

